


The Right Thing

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 13:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12771897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: Dinah takes matters into her own hands when she finds out Diggle hasn't been honest with Oliver.





	The Right Thing

When Diggle didn’t take Dinah’s call the evening after he had told her he was going to talk to Oliver, she didn’t worry too much about it. She figured he was also going to talk to Lyla, and her call had probably interrupted that. So she left a message saying she was there for him if he needed her and left it at that.

The next day when Oliver summoned the team to a meeting, Dinah had assumed it was to announce Diggle’s retirement from active duty, although she played dumb for Curtis when he asked her what she thought; Oliver and Diggle should be the one to share the news. Instead, Dinah listened in horror as Oliver announced that he was hanging up his hood in order that he could spend some more time with William, keep a promise he made to him that he would always be around for him as a father. “The city needs the Green Arrow, but William needs Oliver Queen. And so I have decided to hand over the hood to none other than John Diggle.”

Curtis and Rene looked a little stunned, but rushed over to congratulate Diggle anyway. Felicity looked a little annoyed too; Dinah wondered if Oliver had talked to her about it before making the announcement. But that wasn’t what was important now; Dinah fought her way through the crowd to Diggle, grabbed his arm and hissed “We need to talk.”

“What the hell were you thinking?” Dinah demanded as soon as she had him alone. “You were supposed to be stepping down, to take a less active role, now you’re the Green freaking Arrow?”

“You heard Oliver,” Diggle began. “He’s a father now…”

“YOU are a father too,” Dinah replied. “What about your son? Do you not owe it to him to save him from growing up without a father in the same way that Oliver owes it to William? And you’ve already put Rene and me in danger out in the field before, because you didn’t tell anyone. This nerve damage, you told me it was degenerative. It’s not gonna get any better. If you take over as the Green Arrow, you’re putting all of us in danger, including yourself. You’re putting the whole city in danger. Please tell Oliver the truth, so he can figure out some other way. I already lost one partner once before. I’m not gonna stand by and lose you too.”

“The city needs me, Oliver needs me,” Diggle snapped as he angrily stormed out.

 

Dinah had thought long and hard before going to Oliver herself, thinking deep down that this really did need to come from Diggle. But it had got to the point where she couldn’t ignore it any more.

“I need to talk to you about Diggle,” Dinah began. “He can’t take your place as the Green Arrow.”

“There’s no one else, Dinah,” Oliver explained. “Curtis’s skills are really with the technology, and I’m not sure Rene’s ready yet. Why do you think he shouldn’t take my place? You know the reasons I have to step down.”

“Which are also partly the reasons John should step down. He got injured on the island, more than you knew at the time. He didn’t tell you because of Thea, and Samantha, but he had it looked at when he got back, and he’s got degenerative nerve damage. It’s already starting to affect him, Oliver. He’s nervous, he’s missing his shots. I understand the reason you want to step down, and I know Lyla is still around, but he needs to make sure he’s around for his son too.”

 

Oliver stood unnoticed in William’s doorway, watching him sleep the untroubled sleep of a kid who believed he had nothing to fear. He’d made that promise to William that he would always be there, thinking at the time he couldn’t keep it, then determined to find a way that he could, now understanding that he wouldn’t be able to keep it after all, at least not right away.

Dinah was right, he couldn’t let John take over. And it was true what he had said to her about Rene not being ready to take over and Curtis being more skilled in the tech department. There really was no one else, at least not right now. He’d keep John on the team, maybe he would be able to help Felicity and Curtis a bit more. John was an integral part of Team Arrow, he couldn’t let him go. He just couldn’t be out in the field any more. John would probably be angry at Dinah, at least initially, but Oliver was confident that he would eventually realise she had done the right thing in telling him.

Maybe it was time to recruit again, see if there was anyone out there capable of taking his place. It had worked out fine when he’d recruited Curtis and Rene, although he chose not to think of Evelyn and what had happened there. But he knew it wouldn’t happen overnight. And in the meantime, the city still needed the Green Arrow, and at least in the interim, it would still need to be him.

He just wished it wasn’t going to involve breaking his promise to William.


End file.
